No matter how well William does on his trip to Beijing, dispatching member of
the safe, apolitical Royal Family sends the wrong message about Britain and
its goals

Indeed, the Royal Family have tended to have a rough time when dealing with the People’s Republic. The Queen’s State Visit, the only one she has ever undertaken to Beijing, occurred in 1986. It is largely remembered now not for ground breaking trade or political deals, but largely for unfortunate remarks made by her husband to British students in Xian.

With this pedigree, officials in London and Beijing must have been busy with their damage limitation strategies. Would the Duke disclose zealous (and unconstitutional) negative political feelings about China when he landed? Would genes parked in him from his granddad stir up the desire to antagonise his hosts by insulting their appearance?

Happily, the odds of these things happening were always low. William belongs to a more enlightened, open-minded generation. But even if his visit goes marvelously - and it appears to be going that way - there is a sense in which sending a royal at all will always be an own goal for Britain.

On the surface, his visit offers one of the few real chances for a diplomatic easy win for the UK, which is probably why it is being undertaken. At the moment, bilateral relations are trapped in a state of ambiguity and incoherence. When UK politicians think of China or try to speak to it, they are caught between singing about how to take advantage of the opportunities that Chinese investment and the Chinese market offers to the UK economically, while at the same time agonising over problems like Hong Kong and its political future.

A royal visit offers a holiday from this. It means a chance to get access to senior Chinese leaders and talk mostly about benign, fluffy, friendly things, with none of the sticky, contentious issues politicians have to face up to when they go there. Prince William has all the benefits of status and access in China and none of the pitfalls. Oddly enough, his being part of an unelected dynasty is also not such a great problem. The Communist Party of China appreciates ruthless pragmatism when they see it, and the ability of the British Royal Family to survive revolution, war and the ravages of modernity and still be in place after over a thousand years is something they would have a sneaking admiration for. The personal, apolitical Prince also stands a better chance of emotionally connecting with people in China than David Cameron or any of his colleagues.

But therein lies the problem. Whatever its short-term rewards, in the end the symbolism of royal visits like this only reinforces the image of Britain that the UK is so desperate to get away from in China. It underlines how conservative we are. It supports the stereotype of the UK being some vast cultural museum worthy of a day trip from mainland Europe for Chinese tourists, but obscures the notion of Britain being a cutting-edge intellectual and business partner – an image that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money has gone into changing.

Prince William is accompanied by British and Chinese delegations in Beijing(EPA)

The UK needs a radically different diplomatic approach to China, one that shows more vision and courage. It is hindered by its history over issues like Hong Kong, but the challenge now is to stop getting so hung up about them. Part of the blame should be laid at the door of the ultra-cautious Foreign Office sinologists and diplomats of yesteryear, hidebound by their own limited thinking and lack of foresight. Politicians and all the others today that are now part of this relationship should start to re-energise it and turn their backs on this history, perhaps even disown it.

If Prince William can be encouraged to do one thing while he is wandering regally through China that challenges what Chinese might thing of the stolid, cautious, old fashioned UK, then at least that might help. But in the end, we have to admit that the very fact a visit like this is happening is part of the problem, and not the solution.

Kerry Brown is Associate Fellow at Chatham House and Director of the China Studies Centre, University of Sydney. He served in the British Foreign Office from 1998 to 2005. His new book - 'What’s Wrong with Diplomacy?' - is published on March 3 by Penguin.